Whether you’re totally anti-bang or you regularly rock forehead fringe, bangs can be an especially difficult hairstyle to maintain during the summer months. After all, the sweltering heat index basically ensures that bangs stick to your sweaty forehead. While we’re all for expressing unique style, sweat-drenched bangs might not be our first choice for summer beauty inspo. Before you @ us, summer is notorious for its sporadic rainstorms, humidity and heat—all of which don’t mesh well with a chic hairdo.
Thankfully, there are a few ways you can style your bangs so they’re less of a nuisance, even on the worst hair days.
1. Apply some leave-in conditioner and go
If your hair tends to be temperamental when exposed to direct sunlight, like the delicate orchid that it is, you can help defray your frizzy bangs by styling them with a protective product. You obviously need to put on sunscreen to protect your skin from the potentially dangerous UV rays, and your hair isn’t any different.
While we don’t necessarily recommend lathering your bangs with sunblock (be bold if you want, though), leave-in conditioner acts as a protective layer between your hair cuticle and the sun. Most leave-in haircare products, particularly protein-enriched thermal sprays, work to lock in moisture in your hair shaft’s outermost layer (i.e., the hair cuticle).
Because a leave-in protect doubles as an extra moisture barrier, it also prevents external humidity and heat from adding moisture to your hair shaft, so it helps to control that summertime frizziness. On top of all of that, leave-in conditioners can help maintain your hair dye.
2. Put a pin in it, literally
Whether you’re having some post-bangs remorse or you’re just tired of Mother Nature messing with your perfectly sculpted hair, you can use some hair accessories to dress up your hairstyle and manage your locks.
According to Elle, you can easily part your bangs however you like, twist the desired section of your bangs, and use a hairpin, clip or barrette to secure it in place.
3. Spritz some dry shampoo on your bangs
While your first instinct might be to add some gel or hairspray to your bangs, hairspray can make your hair look exceptionally shiny—which would be a plus, if you weren’t already shiny AF because it’s summer and you’re perpetually perspiring out of pores you didn’t even know existed.
You can spray on some dry shampoo on your bangs to help prevent latent shininess and use it to style your bangs to your go-to look. As PureWow notes, you don’t need to use a lot of dry shampoo to style your bangs, and you can use a toothbrush to evenly brush the product through your bangs.
4. Pull them back
Even if you love your bangs, having extra hair on your forehead can essentially act as an insulator for your forehead—which basically just traps excessive heat on your face. If your bangs are shorter, it might take some spellbinding products and hair clips to pull your fringe away from your forehead.
However, you could easily put on a sleep bandana or headband to pull your bangs back and off your face. This way, you can show off that contour that took you an hour 15 minutes to put on this morning.
5. Try thinning out your bangs
If headbands and hairpins aren’t your thing because you keep losing them, you can still avoid that overly sweaty forehead, which seems to be a staple summer aesthetic.
In order to make your bangs more manageable during the summer months and avoid using excessive hair products, you can ask your hairstylist (or do it yourself, like the amateur beauty guru you are) to trim your bangs with some thinning shears. This method will lessen the weight of your bangs and make them less thick and chunky—hence more breathable.
Apart from the fact that bangs bring out the best and worst of our chaotic energy (unless you’re a Gemini, because you’re just chaotic AF all the time), you love your bangs and you want to make your relationship with your bangs and the summer heat work.
Although one of these methods might not exclusively fix your summer hair woes, combining a trim with some cute hair accessories and some hair care products can help keep your bangs looking effortlessly stylish this summer.